Gulf Coast softball rebounds for home-opening split

Tuesday

PANAMA CITY — Susan Painter is being patient with her Gulf Coast softball team as the Lady Commodores learn and grow.

PANAMA CITY — Susan Painter is being patient with her Gulf Coast softball team as the Lady Commodores learn and grow.

Monday showed some of the growing pains with GC splitting its home-opening doubleheader against Wallace-Dothan (Ala.) at Joe Tom King Field. The usually sound defense of the Lady Commodores was missing, as was their offensive output in the first game, a 4-0 loss. They put all three phases together with a 10-2 run-rule victory in the nightcap.

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The day ended on a positive note on the strength of Katie White’s three-run home run in the fifth inning of the second game. It highlighted a four-run inning, and Brittany Wylie’s second hit to the left-field fence delivered the run-rule finish with two outs against losing pitcher Brianna Terrell.

White finished 4 for 4 with three runs scored. Megan Griffith was 3 for 4 with runs in each of the first and fifth innings. Griffith also drove in two in a five-run first inning reminiscent of Wallace-Dothan’s explosion in the first game.

“When we put runners on we can score, that’s what we can do,” Painter said.

GC (4-6) had 13 hits in the victory. It was held to only three in the first game by Wallace-Dothan’s Makayla Scott.

Wallace-Dothan scored three runs in the first inning with three hits off losing pitcher Katie Beth Gordon. The freshman pitcher’s outing improved, but it was dealt a blow with two errors in the first and an early hole.

“That’s us right now,” Painter said. “That first game we didn’t come out of the box ready to play. That’s happened to us in the first inning. We still have to mesh.”

Gordon had three strikeouts and one walk and held the Governors (4-3) to three hits over the final six innings in the first game. Samantha Bell had the biggest of those hits, a solo homer in the sixth to give Wallace-Dothan insurance. Bell was 2 for 3 in the opener and Chelsea Sizemore 2 for 2 and Keya Wiggins were both 2 for 4 in the second game as the Governors’ only multi-hit performers.

GC pitcher Haley Elver had one strikeout and one walk while giving up six hits in the Game 2 victory. Both Lady Commodore hurlers had solid outings, Painter said, which is a positive point moving forward. Both struggled at times in the season-opening tournament in Henderson, Nev.

The next step in the maturation process is playing well in both games of a doubleheader, Painter said. GC’s next opponent, Chattanooga (Tenn.) State, is no stranger, with former Lady Commodore Blythe Golden at the helm.

“This group needs to be ready to play two ballgames back-to-back,” Painter said. “And we have another tough one coming in.”